Not Oroville.... San Jose

Ohhhhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyy gawwwwwwd......

San Jose is officially flooding. 

A neighborhood, about 0.5 mile from my church is now underwater.  The banks in the nearby creek broke...and water is up to the height of cars, chest high for adults. 

The entire neighborhood is flooded.  Not just water... but sewage and cleaning supplies.  No warning.  No sandbags.  Nothing. 

One minute, you're home for winter break.  Next minute, you're standing on top of any car you can find, hoping and praying for someone to rescue you. 

Last week, the whole world was watching and praying for families living by the Oroville Dam who were evacuated in fear of flooding.

One week later.... without warning, thousands of people lose their home and all their belongings.  Where's the justice in all this?!?!?

Loss of Hope in Mankind

Spent the long weekend down at SLO.... and this time, man.... I came back with a horrible taste in my mouth.  Do we really have hope in our future???

Was at the SLO children museum.  There was one particular exhibit that a bunch of kids wanted to play with, my kids included.  The three kids (of a certain ethnicity) were there and they had no intention of sharing.  Despite my hinting and clearing of the throat... the oldest of the three girls (maybe she was 10??) continued to hog that exhibit.  After about 5 minutes... the other two girls finally forced her out.  Then the 2nd girl (maybe she was 8) spent another 5 minutes on there.  Leaving the last girl (4 or 5) to beg the girl to be done.  My two kids stood patiently waiting.

When the 2nd girl left... the little girl finally got on.  And maaaaaaaaaan.  She stayed on that thing for a good 7-10 minutes!!!  Again... I told my kids to be patient. 

Finally... FINALLY... an adult saw me and came over to ask the kid to leave.  Begging, prodding, forcing... the little kid threw fit after fit.  Until finally, she pouted and cried when she left.  And that adult wasn't even her parent.

Where were the parents??? What's wrong with these kids???

Immediately, after my kids got on... I instituted a system for lines.  Both my kids and the family friend took turns.  Played a bit, and got off.  So everyone got to play for a minute or so. 

Ohhhh it gets worse.  Then this little boy comes rushing through.  Cuts the line and says it's his turn.  I was pissed.... and told him to get in line.  He even had the courage to say, "I was here first." What was he... sick!? demented?!  Without yelling at him... I finally got him to understand that "He was next."  One more minute and I would've lost my cool and yelled at him...then yell at his parents for not teaching their kids common courtesy.

What is it with kids these days!?!? Damn parents!!

CNY2017

Of all the things that happened leading up to this event... Of all the things that happened tonight....  the one image that will haunt me forever, is when Karen was carrying a helpless Elena, looking for her lost son.  The hopelessness... the despair... the anguish.  Nothing can describe that feeling.  My heart skips a beat if I turn around and NN or SW aren't where I expected.  But for 20 minutes!?!?!?!??!?!

The whole church was sent out looking for him....  and all along... he was playing hide and seek behind a shelf.  That darn kid.....  And the moment I saw them reunited... How can I not shed a tear???

CNY2017..... will always be remembered for when Elena lost and then found her son.  Hallelujah... God is good.

Walk their streets, breathe their air, see their sights...

Second time we went on our Neighborhood Outreach / Prayer Walk on Saturday. Last time, we ended up finding a location where this organization was handing out sleeping bags and clothes.  So were able to go meet, speak and pray with new friends.

This time was completely different!!  We tried to piggy-back with the same organization as last time and meet with some of the neighborhood friends. Turns out there was a police raid of the camp grounds there.  And contrary to our plans... the organization went a completely different route.  Keno and I ended up driving aimlessly for an hour, trying to catch up with them. 

Right when we were about to give up... we had one last hope to go back to where we went the first time.  We courageously went beyond our comfort zone... and decided to walk down to the creek.  To our surprise, under the bridge, we found several camps of "indigenous" people.  Not homeless.... the city government doesn't like to use that word.

These camps.... they're amazing.  They have sleeping bags, a campfire, cooking utensils, vegetables, lots of collectibles, blankets.  Some of them even had phones.  They were really self-sustaining.  When we approached them... they didn't shoo us away.  Keno and I were respectful and asked if we can come closer.  They truly welcomed the milk and cookies we brought... and they longed for more.  They longed for some warm clothes... blankets and "real food." 

Those images.  Those images of their homes and tents.... I still see it every time I close my eyes. 

Like Karen said... we shouldn't drive around to find these camp grounds.  We need to walk their streets, breathe their air, see their sights.  And try to understand first hand, what they go through on a first-person basis.  On Saturday, we took one step closer to crossing that cultural boundary.  Many... many more steps to go.